You Booze, You Lose? Spillovers to Crime from Alcohol Sales at College Football Games

Abstract

In recent years, many schools have lifted their alcohol sales bans at college football games, possibly as a tool to increase attendance and revenues. However, spillovers to crime deserve consideration, given the research that links alcohol consumption and availability to crime. Alcohol sales may spill over to crime through their impacts on attendance, preferences for alcohol consumption among fans, and endogenous changes to policing and enforcement, although the net effect on crime is theoretically ambiguous. Using data from the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) over the 2005 to 2016 period for law enforcement agencies that serve 33 Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) schools, and utilizing difference-in-differences (DD) and triple-differences empirical strategies (leveraging variation in pre-vs. post-sales periods, home vs. away game days, and sales-adopting vs. non-adopting schools), I find that alcohol sales are associated with reductions in arrests for liquor law violations (83.5 percent) and disorderly conduct (81.0 percent) on home game days.